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Israel to Halt Gaza Bombings as Diplomacy Revs Up |
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Wednesday, 7 January 2009Israel said it would suspend bombing Gaza for three hours every day beginning on Wednesday as diplomacy to end the Jewish state's war on Hamas gained momentum amid a mounting civilian death toll.
"It was decided to suspend bombings between 1 and 4 o'clock (1100 GMT and 1400 GMT) every day starting today," an army spokeswoman told AFP, adding that the military would respond if fired on and if rockets were launched from the enclave.
Another official at the defence ministry told AFP that "the army will stop its operations in the area of Gaza City."
The announcement came hours after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would open a humanitarian corridor into Gaza -- a key point of an Egyptian plan to end the 12-day-old campaign that has killed at least 680 Palestinians.
"In order to prevent a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided to adopt a proposal by the security establishment to open a humanitarian corridor into the Gaza Strip to assist the population," said a statement from his office.
"This involves opening up geographical areas for limited periods of time during which the population will be able to receive the aid and stock up."
The statement came several hours after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak outlined a three-point plan that Egypt was proposing to end Israel's largest military operation since the 2006 Lebanon war.
The plan included an "immediate ceasefire for a specific period" to allow humanitarian aid to pass; an invitation to Israel and the Palestinians to come to Egypt for talks on securing Gaza borders, reopening of its crossings and lifting an Israeli blockade; and a renewed call for Palestinian reconciliation talks under Egyptian mediation.
Egypt "invites the Israelis and Palestinians for an urgent meeting to reach arrangements and guarantees that would not allow the repeat of the current escalation," Mubarak told reporters late on Tuesday after talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Such guarantees would include "securing the borders and... opening of the border crossings and lifting the siege," said the veteran Middle East mediator who had brokered a six-month truce between Israel and Hamas last year.
Sarkozy said Israel was invited "to come and discuss the matter of border security" and that "I have very precise elements that allow me to say that an Israeli delegation will meet an Egyptian delegation to discuss the matter of security."
Olmert was holding a meeting of Israel's security cabinet on Wednesday and had not yet decided whether he would accept Mubarak's invitations, his spokesman told AFP.
Israel's main ally the United States has backed the efforts by Mubarak to secure a halt to one of Israel's deadliest-ever offensives in Gaza, a Palestinian enclave run by the Islamist Hamas movement for a year and a half.
"We are pleased by and wish to commend the statement of president -- the president of Egypt and to follow up on that initiative," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told an emergency UN Security Council session in New York on Tuesday, according to a State Department transcript.
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Wednesday, 7 January 2009
MIA
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